Delco Concedes Election Code Change Is Ambiguous In Hearing Before Judge Bradley — Judge James P. Bradley heard arguments this morning, Nov. 1, for a preliminary injunction to prevent the enforcement of changes to the election code passed by Delaware County Council, Jan. 18.
The Pennsylvania Election Code requires all county election boards to have a minority party member.
The law passed by the Democrat-controlled council requires the minority party to submit a list of three and allows them reject it if not satisfied with the choices restarting the process.
Attorney Wally Zimolong representing Delaware County GOP and GOP Chairman Frank Agovino, said that the state code says the county legislative body “shall” fill vacancies from a list provided by the chairman of the minority party leaving no ambiguity that the choice is the minority chairman’s.
The attorney representing the county argued that the request should be rejected as Agovino would no longer have standing if the Republicans should take control, Nov. 7.
Zimolong notes that Agovino has standing now which is all that matters and that the legality of the ordinance means it would be required to be addressed even if Agovino should become leader of the majority party.
Bradley asked the defense what would stop council from rejecting the minority lists in perpetuity or until they got someone who would be a true minority watchdog
The defense conceded that the law was ambiguous and maybe didn’t prevent that but council would never do that, well, because.
Judge Bradley did not promise a fast decision.
Democrat politicians and candidates have taken to smearing those concerned about election integrity as “election deniers” but the reason why so many have developed election skepticism is because of stunts like this.
Why change the election code to weaken minority oversight? Really, help us out. Give us an answer as to how that instill trust in government.
Monday, we attended a hearing before Judge John Capuzzi involving a suit by Robert Mancini of Media against Delco.
Mancini says the county is in violation of the state code because it fails to perform hash validation before each election.
The county argued that while it may be best practice to do so the county is only obliged to do so when installing new software.
If the county is right regarding the law, we expect the judge to rule in its favor.
But why isn’t it using best practices?
Mancini filed several right to know requests last year that the county rejected but that Mancini won on appeals to the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.
Did the county concede things to put the issue to rest?
No, it appealed the appeal to Common Pleas Court.
Among the things that Mancini wants are the correspondence with Fort Orange Press of Albany, N.Y., which prints the county’s mail-in ballots.
Why the secrets?
Why isn’t Delaware County, Pa. making its elections as transparent as possible and doing everything it can to assuage all fears of fraud?
Delco Concedes Election Code Change Is Ambiguous